The Hunt
by Krishmech87
Summary: In a dystopian RWBY alternate universe where aura and the semblances that come with them are considered unnatural mutations, and the rest of society is more restricted to the limitations of our own, all of the characters we know and love must struggle to survive in a world where they are being constantly hunted.
1. Chapter 1

**I**

_Humanity. Don't we just despise it? The very word has been twisted and destroyed to the point of which we, who are intended to define the appalling set of letters, are unsure of what it still means anymore._

"_Humanity- Genocide."_

"_Humanity- Murder."_

"_Humanity- Cruelty."_

_What have we become? We've divided both our meaning and world, all in hopeless reach of what may soon be considered a lost cause._

_Peace._

_Nevertheless, there is always hope for the future. In a dystopian reality where the soul of a person protects them by physical means, we have all the help required to rebuild._

_However, for now, humanity must wait. For we stir in a world where one can either hunt-_

_Or be hunted._

Ruby Rose spoke into the microphone in front of the hundreds of government officials standing before her; every vocal echo shouting her words back as though asking for a debate.

The podium upon which the mic sat rocked slightly as the girl's pale fingers, now turning blue, continued to further grip the edges.

"It is indeed confirmed that millions across the globe have begun to develop a condition that may almost be considered supernatural by means of the general public."

One of the officials spoke up.

"How supernatural?"

Ruby hesitated.

"Many believe that these conditions are results of the soul projecting itself onto the human body it inhabits."

Her statement was met with mixed reactions of surprise and complete, utter disgust.

Some in the audience gasped and exchanged whispers that might have meant something important, while most rolled their eyes and scowled at the superstitious theory.

Ruby proceeded to tense up with how everyone was receiving the news, and continued to press on.

"Regardless of what it may be, this bodily _aura_ that people seem to be generating can enhance the abilities of whoever bears them, some even granting entities akin to that of _superpowers_, or _semblances_, as that is what the world seems to be calling them."

Ruby's watchers suddenly became louder and more aggressive, as this announcement had proved to be the more shocking end of the wire for them.

"_Superpowers?"_

"_We've no time for such ridiculous games, Miss Rose."_

"_Quit wasting our time!"_

One man walked from the crowd and unleashed a set of words that stood out more than the generically put together insults, questions, and demands.

"_And just how various are these newfound powers that people have been receiving, Rose?"_

Ruby looked down from the stage at the man in the white suit before her in the shadows.

"Begging your pardon, sir?"

The man stepped out of the shadows, revealing his chiseled face and faded white hair at the sides of his cut.

"What I am trying to say is-"

He looked up at Ruby.

"_What kinds of powers do these people have?"_

She smiled, now recognizing the man who stood in front of her as _James Ironwood_, general of the Atlas military and a devoted supporter of her cause.

"All recorded abilities so far have been ranging from strictly elemental to specifics such as _polarity, invisibility, telekinesis, _and so on."

Ironwood gave a slight nod and looked down, knowing that everybody else in the room would not be as passive as himself about the situation.

A girl in a black suit inched up next to Ironwood with a clear look of anxious concern on her face.

"If any of this is true, shouldn't we all hope to be more cautious towards this new _race _of _people-_ if they are even worthy of being called that anymore?"

Ruby spoke up.

"_Ms. Fall, _please try to understand that these people weren't given these abilities by choice. Most of them have no idea how to use them, nor do they know what to do with their lives, as others seem to treat them like monsters."

"_And what happens when they learn how to use their gifts?_ Surely, some of them will become the monsters society has defined them as, religious zealots aside."

"That gives us no reason to put leashes on our own people."

Ironwood joined Ruby's argument in a small attempt to support her reasoning.

"What Ms. Rose means to stay is that there's no telling what these people may do now that they've obtained these powers. Some may continue to live their lives, and others may choose to face the law. _Is that not what every other human being faces on Remnant?_"

Cinder rolled her eyes.

"_Sure_. That is the struggle we all face, _unless_ you're powerful enough to telepathically control the minds of everyone in a courtroom to ensure that you aren't deemed guilty."

Everyone in the room but Ruby and James exchanged glances and whispers of agreement.

_Cinder Fall_ now spoke louder, fully confident in her influence on the crowd.

"These people are _dangerous. _We should be putting together organizations to apprehend all of them before they decide to _get smart_."

Ruby kept trying to get her share of support.

"_Please. Many _of these people are innocent. We can't just arrest them because they're _different._"

"Hold your _tongue, Miss Rose._"

Cinder brought the meeting to a close with her final questions.

"All in agreement of eliminating this problem before it manifests itself into an apocalyptic future?"

All in the audience raised their hands but the man and girl at the stage.

"All in favor that we try to be careful with these people and take this opportunity for granted?"

Ruby and Ironwood hardly bothered to indulge in Cinder's taunt. _They had lost._ Having an _Aura_ was now illegal.

From afar seat in the crowd, the man behind Ruby's pacifistic intentions observed, pushing his glasses back up as his pupil's words were shot down by the others surrounding the stage.

He pushed the bangs of his silky white hair away from his eyes, straightening his green suit and walking out of the room.

He had gotten halfway to the exit of the building when he heard a familiar voice.

"_What are you doing here, Ozpin?"_

The man gave a long sigh, daring not to turn around.

"_I could ask you the same, Salem."_

"_I'm here to prove a point."_

"_And that would be?"_

Ozpin gave a slight look over his shoulder to spot an inch of her blonde hair.

Salem crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at Ozpin's shirt collar to keep herself from focusing on his face.

"_That humanity will never be on our side."_

"_This is only the beginning. They are learning."_

"_Learning to kill us."_

Ozpin scowled.

"_Are we any different? In the end, we're just altered humans. We feel emotion, we commit the same atrocities, and we're prone to betrayal."_

"_And you'd know all about betrayal, wouldn't you, Ozpin?"_

The two age old adversaries fully turned around to face each other.

Ozpin took a small handle out of his pocket, flicking a lever on it and causing it to extend into a cane.

He twirled it around in his hand as he readied himself in something of a battle stance.

Salem simply just stood still as the very floor around her began to disassemble itself particle by particle and swirl around her in a telekinetic twister.

"_I have plans, Ozpin. Great plans for the future."_

"_Whether or not those plans are great depend on the kind of future you envision."_

Salem let her arms down to her sides, the fingers on her prosthetic hands twitching as the twister took in more raw matter and began to get stronger.

"_I envision a future of hope. One that will provide the best for all of our people who deserve it."_

"_I do not want to fight you, Salem."_

"_Then don't. I'll be taking the wheel for now. The best you can do is stay in the passenger's seat."_

She stopped, allowing the twister to falter as the storm of particles turned into a faint mist of dust and debris.

Ozpin retracted his cane, putting it back into his pocket with an utmost stern look plastered onto his face.

"_I cannot make any promises."_

Salem gave him one smile before he turned away from her and walked out of the exit door.

"_Goodbye, Ozpin. I hope to see you again soon."_

Ruby walked out of the building with Ironwood by her side, ranting to him about the intricacies of human nature.

"God, I hated that! The moment you get up there, they all just stare at you like your existence is a crime!"

"Considering what we were discussing in there, they may very well believe that."

The sidewalk cracked as Ruby's stress caused her telekinesis to have a slight spasm.

Ironwood looked down at the crack in worry.

"I suppose you were holding that in for a while?"

Ruby pouted, shoving her hands into the pockets of her red suit.

"I've been trying to control it."

Ironwood raised an eyebrow.

"I really have! I was holding it in that room for over thirty minutes!"

"_The point is to not have to hold any of it back._ If none of it is in your system, you'll have nothing to worry about. You need to control your stress, Miss Rose."

"_Tell that to Yang."_

Ironwood continued to look down at the crack, giving out a slight chuckle.

"_You'll learn, Miss Rose. In time, you will learn."_

Ruby rolled her eyes, continuing to sulk around.

"Lighten up. I'm sure we can take a little break after that."

James looked up to see that the girl in red was no longer beside him, a small bed of roses in her place.

He smiled, knowing she would be back at the academy in no time.

"Your performance in there was quite questionable, old friend."

Ironwood looked behind himself to see Ozpin putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Where is Rose?"

"She left. Got tired of my lectures again."

"_Ah. I see."_

They gazed off into the horizon with a mellow feeling rising in their stomachs.

"So, Oz."

"Yes?"

"Have you drawn any conclusions?"

"Not quite. I can only be sure of one thing."

He pushed up his glasses once again.

"_The world is ready for a revolution."_


	2. Chapter 2

**II**

Jaune Arc sat anxiously on the hospital bed beside his injured sister, the tears crawling into his eye sockets, threatening to inch their way out of his body like maggots.

She'd been on a city bus. The driver had apparently developed some kind of problem, claiming to have lost concentration with being able to _hear people's thoughts._

The bus had sped into traffic, smashing itself into the multiple confused vehicles and causing an absolute _maelstrom_ of catastrophe.

Saphron had managed to reach the emergency escape, but jumped out of the bus right in the middle of four cars speeding into each other amidst the chaos.

_Why, Saphron?_

_Why?_

Jaune looked over to his dying sibling, her face covered in bandages as her labored breathing echoed further and further into his head, sounding like a sandstorm in a subway tunnel.

_There was nothing he could do._

Jaune opened himself up to that realization as he clenched her hand and let the tears crawl out.

As his sobbing continued, Jaune found himself unable to realise that his sister's breathing was slowly beginning to sound stronger.

He squeezed his hand tighter around hers, and her hand squeezed back.

He finally made himself aware of this as his eyes widened upon noticing that his entire body was suddenly being enveloped in a white glow.

Saphron squeezed tighter and tighter until her grip was stronger than Jaune's.

_She opened her eyes._

Jaune's body stopped glowing as he took a moment to gaze at his sister.

She used her other hand to wipe the tears from his face, moving it from his cheeks to the side of his head, running it through his tufts of blonde hair.

_What was going on right now?_

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

_Had he done this?_

Everything in the room became more obvious upon the silence developed by the two gazing at each other.

_The news on the television, the ticking of the clock, the flowing of the white curtain, the life support._

_All of it was irrelevant to them for a moment._

Saphron sat up and hugged her brother, sobbing with him.

Jaune hugged her tighter.

"_I thought I'd lost you…"_

The woman looked over her brother's shoulder to see the breaking news on the television.

_All people carrying the disease known as __Aura_ _were to be arrested and taken in for experimentation._

She let go of the hug and set her hands on Jaune's shoulders.

"_You need to go, Jaune."_

"_W-what? Why?"_

She turned him around to face the screen.

He stared blankly at it for a few seconds before realizing what she was getting at.

"_Oh."_

"Mom and Dad will be here soon to get you. They won't understand."

Jaune knew this was definitely an honest and heartbreakingly true explanation. His parents would act out of fear. She was right. They wouldn't understand.

"But I'm not dangerous! _I healed you!"_

"_Do you think they care?"_

She gestured to the police forces being shown on the screen.

Jaune started to tear up again as he struggled to process everything that was going on.

"_But you just got back…"_

Saphron hugged him again.

"The world isn't in the right place now. You are. I'll let you know when it changes."

She let go for the final time.

"Now, go. Please."

Jaune gave one last sorrowful look at his sister before leaving the room.

"_I love you."_

Elsewhere in the city of Atlas, _Cinder Fall_ sat in her office with her associate, _Mercury Black_ standing at her desk.

"You do realise that by outlawing this condition, _you've set the stage for a civil war?"_

Cinder scoffed at his statement.

"War is a chess game for the people who run it. _That's why I love it so much."_

"Which implies?"

"Atlas is one of the most totalitarianistic kingdoms to ever exist on Remnant. The people here will do whatever their government tells them to do _without question_. Not only do we have that advantage, but _should a civil war commence_, all we need to do is ally our powers with that of Mistral."

"_You do not have full control of Atlas."_

Cinder tensed up.

"_Dammit."_

She slammed her hand hard onto the desk.

"_I forgot about James."_

Mercury walked closer to his mistress, sitting on the desk with his prosthetic legs making a series of metallic groans.

"I'll tell you what- seeing as you can benefit from both the possibility of war and control over this hellhole, I'll come up with how you ought to do both."

"_You've always got the better end of my plans, Black."_

"_Thank you."_

He got off of the desk and began to pace around.

"_Let's see- _if we could get the _Schnee dust company_ on our side, we could definitely _coax Ironwood into giving up his position_ after we halt the production of dust for the Atlas military. Once we gain control of it, we'll restart the production and use what we have to the best possible extent."

"Implying that our control won't be permanent?"

"Ironwood has a lot of extremely powerful people on his side. Not only that, but _Jacques Schnee _is a pretty difficult man to convince. We have to be ready for anything if we're going to try this."

"Of course."

"Remember that the only force we have against those with _Aura_ as of now are police forces. We have to act quickly and take the military before any retaliation begins."

Cinder raised an eyebrow.

"_And what will we do_ if we experience a rebellion before we put this plan into action?"

Mercury smiled, his lips curling to the left side of his face like a shriveling plant.

"_I know a guy who can take care of that."_

Roman Torchwick was beginning to tire out.

_This kid just didn't stop._

He was in a fight with a young boy by the name of _Oscar Pine_. The two had been swinging their canes at each other for over thirty minutes now, and the police gathered around them were watching, in which they had been called to _arrest Oscar_ on Torchwick's command.

Here they were, in the middle of the street in the city of Argus, just beating the crap out of each other like there was no tomorrow.

Or, as Oscar put it, _he was beating the crap out of Roman._

He didn't even need to try, as his semblance was quite a special one.

_Time._

Oscar was slowing down every moment upon which Torchwick's cane was swung at him. To everyone else, he was moving incredibly fast to counter the attacks. However, to _himself_-

_It was just a walk in the park._

He slammed his cane into Torchwick's stomach, causing him to crumple to the floor.

Torchwick coughed repeatedly, cursing under his breath as he did so.

Oscar stared down at him, holding back the urge to laugh.

"_Are you done?"_

Roman managed to get a few words out.

"_You. . .little. . .f-freak. . ."_

Oscar gave a long sigh, shaking his head.

"People like you never learn."

He bent down to Roman, stepping on his cane so he couldn't pick it up.

"What was it you tried to tell me- _the real world doesn't care about spirit?"_

The police all pointed their guns at Oscar.

He looked around at them, smiling.

"_Take your best shot, guys."_

Jaune stepped out of the Atlesian airship and onto the grounds of Argus.

The city looked _dead. _Almost _completely deserted._

He thanked the pilot for flying him there and gave him the bribe.

He proceeded to walk through the city streets, looking for _someone. Anyone_.

Everybody who might have seen him shut their windows immediately.

The police must have been _extremely_ active around here.

He continued to walk until he heard the sound of footsteps coming from a far corner.

_Finally. Someone was out._

He began to walk in the direction of the noise. To his unfortunate surprise, the noise caught up to him first.

He crashed into Oscar, sending them both down.

They got up, groaning in pain.

Jaune glared at the mysterious boy that had just run into him.

He looked a little above his age, and for some reason, _was carrying a cane?_ Why would he even need that if he could sprint at the rate of goddamned ostrich?

"_What the hell, buddy? It's already enough not to watch where you're going, but to not do it while running in the middle of the street?"_

Oscar looked at the young blonde in confusion.

"_You were the one walking towards me!"_

"Yeah, and you were _running! Hell_, I don't even know if I'd call that running- that was more like you were _speed walking through a dimension that works faster than everything else does!"_

Oscar's eyes widened.

"That's. . ._actually exactly what I was doing."_

He got up and immediately crumpled back down to the floor as a gunshot sounded and the bullet wound up in the side of his waist.

Jaune immediately panicked.

"_What the hell!?"_

"_Run."_

Roman Torchwick advanced further towards the two boys with his men, blowing out the smoke at the end of his pistol after delivering a perfect shot to Oscar.

Jaune tried to pull Oscar away, but there was no time.

"Let go of him, kid. _He's mine."_

He pointed the pistol to Jaune's head.

"_Going once."_

Jaune squeezed Oscar's hand, hoping to heal him the way he did Saphron.

"_Going twice."_

Roman cocked the pistol.

_Nothing was happening_.

Jaune hung his head down in front of the gun. _This was it. He was going to die._

"_I'm sorry, kid. Looks like both of you need to go."_

He put his finger on the trigger, and was immediately cut short as his firearm became trapped in a block of ice in a manner of milliseconds.

His eyes widened as he looked to his left, seeing the girl pointing her rapier blade at him amongst the now unconscious police.

"_Weiss."_

The girl walked closer to him.

"_Let him go, Torchwick."_

"You think this is gonna stop me?"

He raised his frozen arm, ready to bash Jaune's head in with it, and was pushed to the floor by Ruby Rose.

He scowled up at her, getting back up.

"_Little Red."_

"Long time, no see, Roman. Leave him alone and we'll do the same to you."

The humiliated officer looked over to his incapacitated men, then to Jaune and Oscar, and finally to Ruby and Weiss.

"_This isn't over."_

He smashed his arm against the road, freeing it of the ice, and ran off into the city.

While all of this was going on, Oscar was still slowly blacking out as Jaune kept trying to work his magic.

Ruby knelt before him and looked over to Jaune.

"It's alright. Both of you are in good hands."

The boy out of time kept struggling to stay awake as he stared up at the girl with silver eyes.

She smiled down at him, and he finally gave into the darkness that welcomed his sleep.


End file.
